Man confessed to ‘strangling’ woman 21 years ago

A man has been handed down a life sentence after walking in to a garda station and confessing to “strangling” a Dublin woman in her home 21 years ago in a “completely unprovoked” attack.

Howard Kelly, aged 41, of Osprey Apartments, Naas, Co Kildare, was charged with the murder of Margot Seery, aged 48, on March 27 this year.

Yesterday, Kelly pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to murdering Ms Seery at her home in Kenilworth Square, Dublin 6, on or between October 7 and October 8, 1994.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy yesterday sentenced Kelly to life imprisonment and backdated it from March 27, 2015.

Brendan Grehan, prosecuting, said Ms Seery lived in the flat with her daughter but her daughter was visiting her father at the time.

“A postmortem was carried out which indicated that the death had been due to asphyxia due to inhalation of vomit caused by alcohol. The death had concluded from misadventure,” he said.

Mr Grehan said that, on July 22, 2014, Kelly came into Rathmines Garda Station “unannounced” and told gardaí he killed a woman at Kenilworth Square about 20 years ago. He

gave an interview saying he “strangled” Ms Seery to death with his hands. “I did so intentionally and it was not by accident and I have a heavy heart.”

In the statement, Kelly also apologised to gardaí for not coming to them sooner.

A victim impact statement on behalf of Ms Seery’s daughter, Niamh Holliday, was then read to the court.

The court heard Ms Holliday was 12 years of age when her mother passed away.

“My dad left me with a neighbour and went to the flat and I had an anxious wait to find out what was going on. I remember seeing him walk towards our house with a local nun and I knew something was wrong. In the house, she proceeded to tell me that God had taken my mam. This was the day my life and my family’s life changed,” read counsel.

The court heard it was decided Ms Holliday would move to Rathkeale, Co Limerick with her aunt as her dad was working long hours.

Ms Holliday said she believed her mother died from asphyxiation due to inhalation of vomit for close to 20 years and on account of this believed she was an “irresponsible parent”.

“I hate that I had that anger towards her for so long and none of this was her fault,” read counsel.